radogado

Rado’s Native Lightbox instantly upgrades every WordPress gallery into a beautiful, full-screen lightbox carousel. Just activate and go — your existing galleries are transformed automatically, no shortcodes to learn, no settings pages to configure.
Built on <a href="https://nativecarousel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Native Carousel</a>, it uses the browser’s own scroll-snapping instead of heavy animation libraries. The result is buttery-smooth swiping on phones, fluid keyboard navigation on desktops, and a total footprint of roughly 13 KB — smaller than a single thumbnail image.
Why this plugin?
<ul>
<li>Zero configuration — activate it and every gallery on your site becomes a lightbox carousel. Deactivate it and galleries revert to normal. Nothing is written to your database.</li>
<li>Truly lightweight — ~13 KB total (JS + CSS). No jQuery, no frameworks, no external requests. Your PageSpeed score stays intact.</li>
<li>Works with any theme — Twenty Twenty-Five, Astra, GeneratePress, or anything else. The plugin bundles everything it needs.</li>
<li>Accessible by default — full keyboard navigation, focus trapping in the lightbox, screen-reader labels on every control, and <code>prefers-reduced-motion</code> support.</li>
<li>Native scroll-snap — hardware-accelerated, 60 fps swiping powered by the browser itself, not JavaScript animation loops.</li>
<li>Dark mode aware — the lightbox overlay adapts to the visitor’s system color scheme automatically.</li>
</ul>
Features at a glance:
<ul>
<li>Full-screen lightbox with swipe, keyboard and mouse-wheel navigation</li>
<li>Compact thumbnail index strip with scrollable overflow</li>
<li>“Thumbnails only” toggle in both the Block Editor sidebar and Classic Editor settings</li>
<li>Endless (infinite loop) navigation</li>
<li>Lazy-loaded images with low-resolution placeholder blur while loading</li>
<li>Captions and alt text fully preserved</li>
<li>Featured-image click opens the matching gallery slide on single posts</li>
<li>Editor performance guard — caps image sizes in the block editor to prevent crashes with large galleries</li>
</ul>
How it works:
The plugin intercepts gallery rendering at display time and outputs <a href="https://nativecarousel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Native Carousel</a> HTML markup. Your post content is never modified — the transformation is purely visual and fully reversible.
<h3>Third-party source code</h3>
This plugin bundles minified assets from Native Carousel, an open-source carousel component (GPL-2.0-or-later).
<ul>
<li>Homepage & documentation: <a href="https://nativecarousel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://nativecarousel.com/</a></li>
<li>Source code repository: <a href="https://github.com/radogado/n-carousel" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/radogado/n-carousel</a></li>
</ul>
The following files in <code>assets/</code> are the minified production builds:
<ul>
<li><code>n-carousel.min.js</code> — carousel runtime</li>
<li><code>n-carousel-preload.min.js</code> — image preloader</li>
<li><code>n-carousel.min.css</code> — carousel styles</li>
</ul>
The unminified, human-readable source is available in the GitHub repository linked above. No build tools are needed to work with this plugin’s own code — <code>gallery-lightbox.css</code> and the admin JavaScript files are shipped unminified and readable.
This plugin is also maintained as part of the niui theme project: 
<a href="https://gitlab.com/spacest/niui/-/tree/main/rados-native-lightbox" rel="nofollow ugc">https://gitlab.com/spacest/niui/-/tree/main/rados-native-lightbox</a>

Rado's Native Lightbox

Transforms WordPress galleries into lightweight lightbox carousels. Works with any theme — only ~13 KB.

Jordy Meow

Thomas

Meow Lightbox is the photographer’s choice for WordPress. Built from scratch for speed and elegance, it showcases your images beautifully while displaying EXIF data, GPS maps, and metadata—all in a clean, responsive interface.
Stop settling for bloated lightboxes that slow down your site! 😘
Meow Lightbox focuses on what photographers actually need: Beautiful Presentation and Technical Details. Choose between our custom engine or PhotoSwipe, both optimized for performance. Check out <a href="https://meowapps.com/meow-lightbox/" rel="nofollow ugc">our official site</a> to see it in action.
<h3>Core Features</h3>
📸 Responsive Design 
Looks stunning on mobile, tablets, and desktop. Images adapt to screen size for optimal viewing on any device.
🎨 Dual Lightbox Engines 
Switch between our custom Default Engine or PhotoSwipe. Both are optimized for speed and elegance, with full EXIF support.
📊 EXIF Data Display 
Show camera settings, lens info, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and capture date—perfect for photography portfolios.
🗺️ GPS & Maps 
Display shooting location with Google Maps or Leaflet integration when GPS data is available in your images.
<h3>📸 Photography Features</h3>
Your photos deserve to shine. Meow Lightbox displays them beautifully with all the technical details photographers love.
Image Information:
<ul>
<li>Camera and Lens</li>
<li>Shutter Speed & Aperture</li>
<li>ISO and Focal Length</li>
<li>Capture Date & Time</li>
<li>Keywords and Metadata</li>
<li>GPS Coordinates</li>
</ul>
Display Options:
<ul>
<li>Responsive layout for all devices</li>
<li>Fullscreen mode</li>
<li>Zoom and pan on images</li>
<li>Keyboard navigation</li>
<li>Touch gestures on mobile</li>
</ul>
Gallery Support:
<ul>
<li>Works with <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/meow-gallery/" rel="ugc">Meow Gallery</a></li>
<li>Compatible with WordPress core galleries</li>
<li>Supports WooCommerce product images</li>
<li>Separate galleries mode</li>
</ul>
<h3>🎯 Lightbox Engines</h3>
Choose the engine that fits your needs best. Both are fast, elegant, and fully featured.
Default Engine:
<ul>
<li>Custom-built for photographers</li>
<li>Smooth zoom animations</li>
<li>Clean, minimal interface</li>
<li>Optimized for EXIF display</li>
<li>Glass morphism design</li>
</ul>
PhotoSwipe:
<ul>
<li>Industry-standard lightbox</li>
<li>Touch-optimized gestures</li>
<li>Smooth transitions</li>
<li>Full EXIF integration</li>
<li>Modern UI with caption support</li>
</ul>
<h3>Pro Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Deep-Linking: Share URLs that open specific images</li>
<li>Slideshow: Auto-play through your gallery</li>
<li>Social Sharing: Let visitors share your photos</li>
<li>Animation: Beautiful open/close transitions</li>
<li>Google Maps: Display shooting locations</li>
<li>Priority Support</li>
</ul>
<h3>Why Meow Lightbox?</h3>
Performance First 
No bloat, no unnecessary features. Just clean, fast code that showcases your photos beautifully.
Built for Photographers 
EXIF data, GPS maps, and metadata display—everything photographers need in one elegant package.
Flexible 
Works with any gallery plugin or WordPress core galleries. Choose your preferred lightbox engine.
Developer Friendly 
Clean APIs, WordPress hooks, and filters. Extend it your way.
Constantly Evolving 
Regular updates based on real photographer feedback. We listen, we improve.

Meow Lightbox


Your search is over, the work Jordy is doing to make GPT useful for websites will save you so much time. I'm only just getting into the more advanced stuff, but you can bet that it's possible with GPT, then it's being worked on with this plugin. Tons of functionality in the free version. Pro I'm certain he could charge 5 times as much for, so it's the least you can do to donate to the immense calories I'm sure it takes to keep his brain working at the pace AI is developing. The world is a significantly better place already from your work, keep it up, and let us know if there's anything else we can do to help!


This is the framework every website needs


I've been looking for an easy-to-use, lightweight plugin that would allow me to control the lightbox of certain areas of content.



With its easy-to-configure panel, the plugin does wonders and improves my site's UX.



Highly recommend!


A great, easy to setup plugin!

The elegant lightbox built for photographers. Fast, responsive, and displays your photos beautifully with EXIF data and maps. You'll love it! 💕

Rado's Native Lightbox vs Meow Lightbox